A very rare blue and white hexagonal 'Dragon' jar, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue within double-circles and of the period (1522-1566). Estimate $350,000 – $450,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015.

The six sides of the faceted baluster body are decorated in inky tones of underglaze blue with five-clawed dragons leaping amidst lotus scroll, the flowers borne on leafy, penciled stems, above a petal-lappet border and beneath panels decorated with a flower roundel framed by clouds below a band of classic scroll on the neck and a blue line on the molded rim. 10 ½ in. (26.7 cm.) high, Japanese wood box

Provenance: Christie's London, 19 June 1967, lot 87. 
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd., Tokyo.

Literature: Toji Taikei, vol. 42, Min no Sometsuke, Ryoichi Fujioka (ed.), Tokyo, 1975, p. 69, no. 79.
Mayuyama Seventy Years, Vol. 1, Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, 1976, no. 861.
A. Du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, New Jersey, 1984, p. 128, pl. 4.

The present jar, as illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, Vol. 1, Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, 1976, no. 861.

Notes: No other jar of this hexagonal shape, with similar decoration and Jiajing mark, appears to be published. However, very similar lotus scroll can be seen surrounding leaping dragons on the facets of a blue and white jar of square baluster shape, with Jiajing mark, illustrated by R. L. Hobson in The George Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, vol. 4, The Ming Dynasty, London, 1927, pl. V, no. D 25. This latter jar also has a band of petal lappets that rise from the foot, and has a similar mouth rim.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 17 - 18 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza